Recently I posted a pretty harmless meme in my DSA chapter’s Discord (see image). It was in response to South Korea’s recent spate of Fascism.
In response I had comrades jump down my throat, attacking me for critical support of AES states like DPRK and China. According to these comrades “there is no real Socialist nation.”
As tempting as it is to quit DSA I think I should stay and try to educate.
Comrades also jumped on me for a comment I made months ago in response to some right wing BS where I said “maybe Democracy isn’t always a great idea”. The point I was trying to make was that Trans rights and other basic freedoms should never be put up to a popularity contest… I’m ok with a state that defends these rights and doesn’t allow a reactionary majority to vote them away!
During this thread, people brought up multiple times that DPRK isn’t Democratic because the Kim’s have always been the figurehead, China isn’t Democratic because “reasons” (racism), China lies about their suicide rates to WHO, etc.
Frustrating. I’ll post more details in the comments.
My question: What constitutes a “real” Democracy? Is it leadership changing hands every few years? We don’t have that in the U.S. Is it secret ballots? All the nationa above have that. Is it that the people’s votes and voices actually change the government actions? We saw this in China unfortunately when people demanded ending the COVID lock downs early. It was the wrong thing to do but done for the right reason.
And is there any hope for these people in my chapter? One of them was basically racist against Chinese people and they seem very set in this “not real Socialism” mindset.
This is an honest question, not a challenge. Why is DPRK still a remnant of Bolshevism but Cuba is not? Did DPRK follow in some early theoretical footsteps that Cuba didn’t?
I love and support Cuba however Castro who I love very much sided with Khrushchev over Stalin and cuba has became more of a market economy ,the DPRK on the other hand is probably the only country in the world with a planned economy
also they teach positively about Stalin in school
Thank you for the reply.
I would hope Cuba also teaches of Stalin positively, or at least presents history as it truly was with all the positive things Stalin did for the USSR and the world. But I know nothing about the education system in either country.